Monday 6th September

 

06/09/2004 Day 65

The day began at 6:30am when we (quite impressively) quietly sneaked out careful not to wake the spoilt Americans. The shop nearest the hostel but to the right this time was in fact the all singing, all dancing bakery we had been looking for all this time. It was also where Brian ended up giving 20 cents to an American beggar (who was clearly old enough and well off enough to afford his own paneling). He eventually asked for 1 euro. Just because we speak the same language as you... A relatively easy small ride in to the train station where they had a no-smoking waiting room (Shock! Heart to the balloons!) We got very excited when we saw the number of people waiting to go to Naples (a popular place, we presumed). But as the 2 carriage train approached panic rose up as the Greeks pushed and shoved their way to the doors. When we finally got on we realized why, not enough seats! So we entertained the possibility of standing for 3 hours. But thankfully they were all in fact commuters heading to work in the next towns and eventually got seats on the comfy train which was actually more of a push metro. We stopped at Naples and brought into a pension they fly for 10/night for a double room with bathroom. The guy who picked us up from the station along with a spaniard we had planned to stay there because it is the cheapest in town. We know again! Under a sillyQuote "I shall sit amongst the cigarette butts where I belong."

Heather: clouded sky we walked through the scummy nasty town into the old town... and from here Brian shall take up the account.

Brian: She is getting very corny, wouldn't you agree? It really is not my place to 'account' the walk around the old town as it mainly involved looking at restaurant menus (jokingly considered to be Heather's domain). It was a pretty old town though, our first Greek mainland example, Mediterranean style streets and cafe cafe tavernas with red and white table cloths. All very smart and touri (the town that is). It lacked the hustle of our Balkhan start goals, but then I imagine it was a bit of a split a few weeks ago. My lasting memory should be the large getting on a bit, greek man sitting outside his a taverna, nodding off with his empty cup and plate on the table next to him.

Our next port of call I was the beach. It was very rocky and full of sat greeks (and a crazy mother with his a grown up children who forgot to get changed before swimming). I had a sore nipple.

Then to lunch, which was a most stressful affair - very unusual for us now - and our cheap interlabos turned into a strange expensive affair of chicken in tomato sauce in a gamely restaurant style place, where the owner continually disparaged of trying to speak english and marched us through his kitchen to show us the food.

So that done, we both simultaneously decided that 1000 steps was not very high - - - - on our 'want to do' list so we retired to the room and fell fast asleep - waking up two hours later, groggy and tired, to go in search of dinner.

In the course of the day, what with not doing the castle having two call, expensive meals, a two hour sleep and with Corfu on the horizon we made a unilateral decision to officially start our holiday. This was done by a three course meal, on red and white table cloth, in small cute alley way, surrounded by other greeks, with lots greek soul - - and all the other prerequisites categories that Heather laid down as prerequisites for dinner - making it one of the most challenging searches ever.

In any opinion the town wasn't as pretty as some of these others coast (a Parga), suburbs) and it wasn't what I thought of as a typical greek town (a bright blue skies and shiny two storied houses, white-ed streets and pink flowers. And it was pretty dead - maybe we picked the wrong time to visit Greeces prettiest town. It was nice to see a quiet beach for town. It was nice to see a quiet beach fora change but the clouded sky didn't help the atmosphere of the town. It was the sort of place where teenage boys sat in the internet place and played fighting competing games all day long. The sleep came from somewhere and I don't know were and I awoke spouting something and running to the balcony to sit down as I was hot. We fell in the thrain of airing a Greek restaurant out of steam when we guy offered us free wine if we all at his establishment! I even see the place a bit dead during the night (Apparently it was Greeces first capital, can't imagine it...) Dinner was lovely though, if slightly more fun we intended to get! The yoghurt and garlic dip was the best dip I've ever tasted (I could still taste it at the end) and made good use of the bread we didn't order. And the yogurt and honey to finish (long-awaited) was even better than I thought it would be. So, not a great place to be but a good place to start our relaxing holiday.